Outlook For Economic Growth Positive

Treasurer Bill English said today he was confident about the outlook for New Zealand's economic growth.

"Conditions are positive for growth - we have low interest rates, competitive exchange rates, and growth in our trading partners is strengthening.

"Economic forecasts released in the past week from both the Reserve Bank and National Bank support this. The Reserve Bank projects annual growth of 3.7 percent in the year 2000 and the National Bank forecasts even stronger growth of 4.3 percent.

"Both forecasts expect the expansion to be sustainable, and well balanced between the domestic sector and the export sector. And despite this growth, inflation is expected to stay low, peaking at just over 2 percent in 2000.

"In fact, according to international Consensus Forecasts, the NZ economy is expected to grow faster than Australia and the US in the year 2000 - and outperform Germany, Japan, the UK, France, Italy, and Canada," said Mr English.